SOLON - While it won't cover her medical bills, Hallie Abramson can claim a moral victory of sorts with city officials over a toe injury suffered at Community Park.

City Council's Finance Committee may have denied her "moral claim" Oct. 17, but council members have asked for a written policy that can be provided to people when they approach the city about recovering damages.

The damage occurred in May as Abramson was walking past a player's bench at the baseball fields off SOM Center Road, where she got her toe stuck on a jagged piece of metal, apparently clipped by a recreation department lawn mower.

Her moral claim also led to roughly two dozen benches being checked for similar hazards and fixed if needed, said assistant recreation director Russ Schneider.

"We pulled every bench into the shop and found quite a few with similar damage," Schneider told the Finance Committee. "But it was the first time anybody ever told us about the damage. And within two days, every bench was fixed."

As for Abramson, she was unable to run in the May 19 Cleveland Marathon she had been training for because of the pain and the fact she was unable to get her injured foot into a shoe.

"I think at the least, my medical bills should be covered," Abramson said, calling the injury "agonizing and excruciating."

Councilman Bill Mooney, who chairs the city's Finance Committee, explained the award of a moral claim requires the city had prior knowledge and adequate time to make repairs.

"How can you just say you didn't know about it before?" the mother of three said, calling it a "Catch-22" situation. "How can it be brought to your attention? Why would anybody report it before an injury occurs?

"It never occurred to me (beforehand) to sit there and analyze the metal on the benches."

She added city workers should have heard the grinding of aluminum when they struck the benches with the lawn mower - whether they reported it or not.

"It's my word against yours," Abramson said, asking for more transparency in the whole process. "But the city is at fault because it was obviously mangled by a lawn mower."

While her theory was deemed "possible," city officials maintained they still didn't know about it prior to her moral claim being filed.

"As a taxpayer, that's a policy you should think about adjusting," Abramson said, adding had she known, "I wouldn't have wasted my time these past months."

Mooney then requested Finance Director Dennis Kennedy develop "something in writing" on the policy, "something to hand out when people file these moral claims, so they know the rules and don't waste their time."

Kennedy noted moral claims are something city officials are more likely to see with incidents involving streets and sidewalks.

He added he should be able to draft a written policy within the next month that could be made public after that.

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